Easy Entertaining Tips

Are you entertaining a lot this month? Here are some quick and easy suggestions that we've found work beautifully ...


1. Pick up a couple bottles of wine, a brick of cream cheese, crackers, and ginger cookies at the grocery store.

2. Stop at Joli and pick up some of the Bella Cucina Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and one of the Sweet Key Lime, Blood Orange, or Lemon Spreads (50% off right now). Don't forget some paper plates and festive napkins.

3. Pour the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto over cream cheese, and serve with crackers.

4. Serve the ginger cookies with one of the Sweet Spreads.

5. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit down, and relax with your friends!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?!

Bella Cucina in Southern Living

Check it out! Bella Cucina's Farmhouse Olives are featured in Southern Living's November issue. We carry the 10 oz jar here for $13.75. Southern Living is right ... these do make a great hostess gift, so stock up now!

xoxo,

Awesome customer suggestion

Customer Peggy Wilson had a great suggestion for this lovely glass log votive-holder (one that she's applied herself): put fresh Rosemary inside!

Doesn't it look pretty?We also put fresh Rosemary in those sweet little squirrel bud vases that we have, but we didn't get to capture that on film yet.

Thanks, Peggy, for such a great suggestion!

xoxo,

HHF Recap: The Tasting

Before moving onto the tasting, I almost forgot the final arrangement from Barbara Ehret: the fern! Beautiful isn't it? We ended up selling this vase with the fern in it at the end of the night. Great job Barbara! Thanks so much for doing this for us!

We also made good use of our neighbors for the tasting. We asked Eileen Grayce and Ginny Parker to come up with some yummy deliciousness utilizing our Lowcountry Produce and Bella Cucina products.

The results was a delicious spread of appetizers, mini entrees, and desserts. All of it was fantastic, as evidenced by the fact that there was none left!

Here's our display set up next to the tasting tables.

The crowd during the tasting, sampling all of the fabulous goodies.

Unfortunately, I didn't catch these lovely ladies' names, but they perched themselves here on these chairs all afternoon, and kept watch over the food during the tasting to make sure no one overindulged. They were adorable!

Everyone raved about the food at the tasting. We thank Ginny and Eileen so much for putting together such a wonderful late afternoon feast. We know everyone enjoyed it (including us).

xoxo,

HHF Recap: The Flowers

We found out that one of our neighbors, Barbara Ehret, is extremely talented with flower arranging. So we gave her some of our vases and containers, and asked her to put together some simple, easy-to-create flower arrangements using items we could find in our gardens. Here are the fabulous arrangements she made for us.

These lilies are the only flowers she had to purchase. This arrangement was one half of a pair she created that she envisioned sitting on either end of mantle.

Love how the Goldenrod plays off the color of the container.

I think this one is my favorite. I adore the hydrangea!

xoxo,

Fabulous Wedding Gift Ideas

With wedding season ramping up, many of us are looking for lovely wedding gifts. So we wanted to share with you two classically modern merchandise lines we carry that make perfect wedding gifts.

The first line is Beatriz Ball. These beautiful mixed-metal serving pieces are hand-made in Mexico. Not only are they striking, but they never need to be polished, and they can go from freezer to oven to table! These items will add an air of sophistication to any table, without the high maintenance required by some other collections. We carry the items picture below. Stop in the shop or email us for more details!


The second line we recommend is Juliska (and, remember, it's on sale). Juliska's glassware is mouth-blown by artisans outside of Prague. Also handmade, no two pieces are alike. Though the glassware is very thin, it's surprisingly durable -- which means it's dishwasher safe. Inspired by historical European patterns, the artisans at Juliska give those classic designs modern flare and functionality. Below are many of the pieces we carry in the shop (note: some of our glassware is in green; not all is clear).Keep these two product lines in mind next time you need to purchase a wedding gift. They're fabulously beautiful (and reasonably priced) alternatives to the classic nuptial present.

Stay cool!

Awesome Entertaining Idea

Our lovely friend J came into our shop the other day to purchase these shells:
because she had a wonderful idea for them for a dinner party she's throwing. She purchased I think 10 of them (terrible memory, I apologize) to use as a type of "place card." But she's putting a little twist on it ...

She's going to put one of each type of shell at each place setting on her table. Then she's going to have each guest pull the name of a shell out of a bowl. So, someone pulls "Sand dollar" out of the bowl, and then finds a sand dollar on the table and sits there. How awesome is that??

Thanks, J for sharing such a wonderful entertaining idea! Oh, and by the way, those shells are only $2.50 each, so they're a great price too!

Love,